Reuters reports Suleiman Abu Ghaith, son-in-law of Osama bin Laden is asserting in US federal court filings that he was tortured by the US and is asking that terrorism charges be dropped. AP notes the torture would have occurred "earlier this year." Reuters notes: "When he came to office in 2009, Obama renounced
so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which human rights
advocates and some U.S. politicians have described as torture. But his
administration said it would not completely ban the use of rendition."

Did the US government torture him? Maybe not. I assume they did but maybe they didn't. But here's the thing, with the reputation the US government has, no one in the rest of the world is going to believe denials.

That's what happens when you lie and cheat and refuse to follow the rule of law.

Friday, July 19, 2013. Chaos and violence continue, a mosque is bombed
in Iraq, both the State Dept and the US Embassy in Baghdad issue
statements, the mosque is in Diyala Province -- remember Wednesday's
warnings on the violence in Diyala,the Iraq refugee crisis has not
ended, Jimmy Carter's statements on Ed Snowden make news, Bradley
Manning's judge refuses to dismiss some charges, reporter James Risen
remains caught up in Barack's war on whistle-blowers, and much more.

Good for US State Dept spokesperson Marie Harf who did something unheard of today.Happy Friday. Welcome to the daily briefing. I have something to
read at the top, and then happy to open it up to your questions. The United States condemns in the strongest terms
the terrorist bombing inside a mosque today in Diyala province in Iraq.
Attacks against innocent people are reprehensible. That this attack
occurred in a place of worship and during the Holy Month of Ramadan is
especially despicable and cowardly and exposes the nature of those
perpetrating these attacks. Our condolences go out to the victims of
these attacks and their families.

That is how she opened today's press briefing. This was not in response
to a question, that is how she opened. Good for Harf, good for the US
State Dept. The Congress is giving them billions for Iraq, they need to
be noting the country in some manner regularly.

While the State Dept was front and center on the bombing, Nouri's forces were otherwise occupied. Iraqi Spring MC reports
that Nouri's SWAT forces spent the morning forcing Baquba stores
to close. Maybe if they had been focused on doing actual work and
not terrorizing shop owners, Iraqi Spring MC wouldn't have been reporting the Abu Bakr Mosque in Diyala's Wajihiya district was bombed? This morning, Reuters counted 20 dead and NINA counted at least 60 injured. It's not as though Nouri's SWAT forces contributed nothing however, Iraqi Spring MC notes that they are preventing concerned Iraqis from making blood donations to help the victims of the bombing.

Yang Lina (Xinhua) reports, "The attack occurred around midday when dozens of
worshippers were observing the Friday weekly Muslim prayer at the mosque
of Abu Bakr al-Sideeq, in the town of Wajihiyah, northeast of the
provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of the Iraqi
capital of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition
of anonymity." Steve Nolan (Daily Mail) adds, "The blast went off on the left side of
the mosque, which was filled with men and children, as worshippers were
kneeling during prayers, said 30-year-old Mohammed Faleh, who was
praying inside." Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) notes, "The bomb had been hidden under a podium from which an imam was speaking
in the mosque, located in al-Wajihiya in the largely Sunni province of
Diyala, said police officials in the nearby provincial capital of
Baquba." KUNA reports there were two bombings -- the one Tawfeeq has noted and a suicide bomber who detonated outside as people were rushing out. BBC News notes a suicide bomber as well as does All Iraq News. So does Mustafa al-Tuwaijri (AFP) who quotes Omar Mundhir (whose leg was injured in the attack) stating, "I was sitting near the main entrance of the mosque when a huge
explosion happened. I was sitting near the imam and the mosque was full of dozens of
people when a big explosion happened, and the place went completely
dark."

Prensa Latina observes, "The explosion took place in Wajihiya city, Diyala province, with a
population of Sunni majority, and came after a series of attacks which
have taken the lives of 460 people so far this month, according to
official figures." Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) adds, "AP television footage of the aftermath showed the interior of the mosque
near the bomb site charred black and shrapnel damage peppering the
walls." AP counts 27 dead. EFE notes that, among the many wounded, "27 are in grave condition."

If
only someone had seen Diyala as a hotbed, maybe Nouri's forces could
have done an actual job. But alas, no one saw a problem in Diyala . . .
Oh, wait. From Wednesday's snapshot:

NINA reports, "Speaker Osama Najafi called for holding a public hearing on Thursday in
parliament in order to deter violators and terrorists in Diyala province
and easing tensions to overcome the crisis and stop the forced
displacement of citizens in a number of areas of the province." Alsumaria adds
that the Free Patriotic Movement is joining the call as explained by
their leader Massoud Zangana who states that the citizens of Diyala are
in need of help.The hearing was held. At the Parliament's website,
they note 236 MPs attended, a number of issues were addressed and, with
regards to Diyala Province, they commissioned a group to work on the
issue with Nouri's office overseeing the security forces in Diyala
Province. That didn't work out well for anyone today.The US Embassy in Baghdad issued the following:

The United States Condemns Diyala Mosque Bombing

July 19, 2013

The United States condemns in the strongest terms
the terrorist bombing inside a mosque today in Diyala province. Attacks
against innocent people are reprehensible. That
this attack occurred in a place of worship and during the holy month of
Ramadan is especially despicable and cowardly and exposes the nature of
those perpetrating these attacks. Our condolences go out to the victims
of these attacks and their families.

Neither the violence nor the holy month has prevented the ongoing protests. Iraqi Spring Media notes protests took place in Baghdad and in Falluja, in Maysan Province, Mosul and in Jalawla. These protests have been ongoing since December 21st.

The never ending violence also means that the refugee crisis continues. Thursday on WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdii Show,
his guests were Rajiv Chandrasekaran ("senior correspondent and
associate editor at The Washington Post"), Omar Fekeiki ("former
Washington Post correspondent. He's currently an assignment editor at
Radio Sawa"), Naseer Nouri ("a former Washington Post correspondent. He is also the co-founder of Refugee Roadmap,
which is a program of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project."),
Jonathan Katz ("a journalist and author of the book "The Big Truck That
Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster."
He worked as a correspondent for The Associated Press in Haiti from 2007
to 2011").

Kojo Nnamdi:
The other men joining us today were intimately involved in that work.
Starting with you, Rajiv, how did you come to meet Omar and Naseer, and
what kind of work did they do for you in The Washington Post in Iraq?Rajiv Chandrasekaran:
You know, in places like Baghdad, in the earliest days of the U.S.
occupation, it's not so easy to go and find capable, talented fixers and
interpreters. You know, there are no newspapers you can post want ads
in. There's no, you know, online career boards. So it was pure luck and
good fortune that led me to both of them. Omar was walking next to the
Palestine Hotel when he spotted a Western woman struggling to converse
with a group of Iraqis. Turns out that that woman was a Washington Post
correspondent, a colleague of mine. He stepped up to help her. She was
so impressed. She brought him to me and said, you should meet this young
man, and I hired him. Naseer was a friend of another individual who was
working for us. Naseer spent many years as an engineering director at
Iraqi Airways. I mean, this is a guy who fixes planes, but Iraqi Airways
wasn't flying in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. invasion.
He needed a job. He spoke English. And even though he didn't have a
journalism background, nor did Omar, they possessed the necessary
curiosity, the English skills and the resourcefulness to be my
essential, you know, partners in this. You know, put simply, Kojo, I
couldn't have written the stories that I wrote from Baghdad for The
Washington Post if not for gentlemen like Omar and Naseer.
They were our essential partners in this endeavor. It wasn't just
interpreting conversations. It was helping us to find stories. It was
talking our way through checkpoints. It was getting access to government
officials. It was opening our eyes to the world, and it was, on
multiple occasions -- and I'm sure we'll get a chance to talk about this
-- saving our lives, keeping us out of danger.Kojo Nnamdi:
Omar, you -- your father was a journalist in Iraq, and you have been an
English major. So you spoke English. You've never actually spoken with
an American before you met Rajiv's colleague, Mary Beth Sheridan, but
that's how you started that conversation. But you and Naseer both end up
working with Rajiv for The Washington Post almost by accident.Omar Fekeiki:
Not almost. Entirely by accident. It was -- in my -- I've never thought
in my life I'll be a journalist, although I come from a family of
writers, journalists...Kojo Nnamdi:
Your father was a journalist.Omar Fekeiki: My father was -- headed the foreign desk at the Iraqi
News Agency until the late '70s. But just in my head, what I have
learned under Saddam, journalists were not free to write about real
stories. They were mouthpieces for the government, or I -- to be fair, I
have to say, for the most part, I wasn't interested in being a
mouthpiece for anyone. But when I got the chance to translate for The
Washington Post reporters, I just realized I was fascinated by the fact
that whatever I translated the day before appeared exactly the same on
-- in the newspaper the day after. It was my fascination with conveying
the true story, of voicing out people's problems to the outside world,
then to the readers everywhere, that really got me interested in
journalism, and I've never worked in any field since then.Kojo Nnamdii: Naseer, in your case, you apparently thought the best
thing that you could do with a newspaper was clean windows.
Nevertheless, you had gone to school in Tulsa, Okla., and were working
in Iraq, but still had yourself a great deal of contempt for newspapers.
What drew you in?Naseer Nouri: All my life was aviation, even my hobby. I'm a member
of the national aerobatic team of flying. All my life was on the air,
never on the ground. And journalism -- and I never wrote. I never read
newspaper before. I hate reading the newspaper. But the minute that I
met Rajiv in his office in Baghdad when he was establishing his office
and recruiting the people to work there, I saw in his eyes what he want
to do here. I thought this guy, he is here to write the history of my
country, and I wanted to be there to share this guy writing the history
of my country. First, it's an honor to do that. Second, I wanted to be
sure that this history will be written the right way. So I wanted to be
there to be sure to give him the right stories, and this is how I
started.

Hannah Allam: A pet issue of mine is the special immigrant visa, the
SIV. Uhm, you know, Congress has approved since 2008, 25,000 special
immigrant visas for Iraqis for Iraqi translators who worked with media,
who worked with military. These were our eyes and ears on the ground.
How many have they issued to date? Like 4600. And the program expires
in September unless Congress extends it. So that is something forward
looking to take from this because, you know, you still have people -- We
were just talking about a mutual friend of ours in Baghdad who sat out
that first round because he believed that things would improve and he
could stay and he could work as a journalist and 'I'm Shia, this is my
government, I voted for these guys, this is my community, I'm fairly
safe. Uhm, my sect is in power, what's there to fear?' And, here we go
again, I just got the news that he too has applied for this -- for this
resettlement option. And to me, that's the greatest tragedy personally
of this. We thought, 'Okay, one day our bureaus will shutter and we'll
all go home and the American public's attention will shift elsewhere --
as it has -- but at least we'll leave this legacy of a, you know, of a d
-- of a free press, a probing press, an independent press and all but
one, two, maybe three?, of our original eight team person staff -- the
ones that are still alive, uhm, have -- have, uh, fled. And they're in
Sweden, they're in Ukraine, they're in Atlanta and Massachusettes, DC.
So that's -- You know, we haven't left that legacy even. And we were a
bureau that really took pains to -- You know we would -- in between on
slow days -- we would talk about journalism and they would, you know,
they had their own blog, Inside Iraq, uhm, they would report, shoot, do
all of their own stories and, you know, we really promoted that. And to
what end? None of it exists anymore.

As we noted July 8th, Hannah Allam's concern hasn't translated into
coverage on her part of even a Tweet. She's yet to Tweet Kojo's
Thursday broadcast (we're covering it tonight because I wanted to give
her 24 hours in case she was a slow Tweeter) or Rajiv's article we'll be
noting in a moment. Back to Kojo's show:

Kojo Nnamdi:
Rajiv, interesting is in the fact that after, oh, about a decade or so,
what made you feel that it was important to capture the stories of the
people who worked with you in the Baghdad bureau of The Washington Post?Rajiv Chandrasekaran: Well, a couple of months ago, I was asked to
write a 10-year anniversary piece of the invasion of Iraq, and I didn't
want to do the predictable thing, going to Iraq and doing sort of a
(word?) the government and the legacy of all the billions upon billions
of dollars we wasted there and the cost in lives.
I had this amazing relationship and a relationship that I should note I
allowed, in some cases, to become detached. Naseer and Omar lived in the
D.C. area. I stayed in touch with them, but many others who worked in
the bureau have resettled in other parts of America -- Portland, Oregon,
San Diego, Phoenix, Toledo, Ohio. And I really...Kojo Nnamdi:
You guys had 75 people at the first party you have that...Rajiv Chandrasekaran: Yeah. That was family members...Kojo Nnamdi: I know.Rajiv Chandrasekaran:
...but we had a lot of people. In fact, one of the editors, senior
editors of The Post -- I had a big poster that's blown up in my office
-- admonished me, when I came back from Baghdad, not to show it to our
publisher because, you know, I was employing...Kojo Nnamdi: Is this how you're spending our money?Rajiv Chandrasekaran:
...I was employing more people, he was joking, than we did in one of our
printing plants. But as I turn my attention to the Afghan War, Kojo,
focus on other issues, I didn't stay in touch with a lot of my former
Iraqi colleagues, who worked -- who'd come to this country. And I wanted
to know how they were doing. Were they thriving? Were they flailing?
What was their experience like? And so I set out a couple months ago to
track most of them down. And I spent a lot of time with them.
And the result is the 9,000-word piece that will take up the entire
Sunday Outlook section on Sunday. And it really is an effort to trace
their lives from Iraq to this country and to understand how these
individuals who had such great hopes in 2003 at this party that we
talked about in November '03. They're all smiling in this great group
photo because they thought Americans were going to deliver them a
brighter future in Iraq.
They were going to rebuild their country, their lives after years of
economic sanctions and strife in their country, and dictatorship would
somehow, you know, magically improve. And what they have discovered is
they faced those years of threats for working for us, they served
bravely. But that they're hopes of rebuilding really are now taking
place in America. It's not America rebuilding Iraq, it's Iraqis
rebuilding their lives in America.

Naseer started in the bureau as an interpreter. He
tagged along with Post correspondents, facilitating conversations with
anyone who couldn’t speak English. After a few months, he became a
fixer: He came to us with ideas for stories and set up interviews with
Iraq’s new political and religious leaders. By the spring of 2004, we
had made him a special correspondent. He would go out on his own to
report stories, which we edited and published under his byline.

In April 2006, militants abducted Naseer’s 14-year-old nephew,
Noor. When the kidnappers called, Noor’s father offered to pay whatever
they wanted. “Use the money for his funeral,” he was told. “We’re going
to kill him so his uncle learns to stop working for the Americans.”

The next morning, Noor asked his captors to use the toilet. From
the bathroom, he spotted a back door and dashed to it. As he scaled the
compound wall, he saw a pickup truck in the rear courtyard filled with
bodies, partially covered with a plastic sheet. Once he returned home,
his father kept him inside the family house for 18 months.

Naseer, who didn’t want to lock up his three teenage daughters,
beseeched my successor, Ellen Knickmeyer, for assistance. She agreed to
help relocate his family to Jordan, where Naseer’s son, Saif, who had
worked as a driver for the bureau, was training to become a pilot. But
the family could not readily obtain Jordanian residency permits. A year
later, a U.N. agency referred them for resettlement in the United
States.

Naseer, his wife and their four children arrived at Reagan
National Airport in May 2008. As they embraced a small welcoming
committee of Post staffers — one of them, former Baghdad correspondent
Jon Finer, wore an Iraqi national soccer team jersey — Naseer walked up
to me and proclaimed, “It’s great to be back in America.”

The illegal war created the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East
since 1948. Even Syria's problems have not created the 4.6 million that
had accumulated by 2008. And the refugee crisis has continued to
grow. Largely ignored by the world's media, the flow of Iraqis out of
Iraq has continued. Dropping back to the June 5th snapshot:

"The world has forgotten us. The west has forgotten us. Even the
UNHCR, they have forgotten us," an Iraqi refugee tells the BBC. The
violence is having many effects including restarting the flow of
external refugees. Matthew Woodcraft (BBC World Service -- link is audio) reports on this development and I've deleted the names of two Iraqi males. Excerpt.Matthew Woodcraft: ____ explained how he was new to Amman having
decided to make the move from his home city of Baghdad to seek refuge in
Jordan just a few weeks ago. "Iraq, she is beautiful," ____ said before
exhaling a plume of smoke as he rolled the dice across the board.
"Well, she was," he added, "but we cannot be there anymore. The
religions, it's dangerous. More men arrived sounding lively, with shouts
of "Salam alaikum, habibi" -- "hello, my good man" -- and handshakes
all around. Amman is witnessing a new wave of Iraqi refugees as the
almost daily bombings across Iraq become ever more bloody. As the
click-clack of dice on wood continued, I spoke with **** one of the
organizers of the backgammon evening, in a room away from the other
men. I asked him about the new influx of Iraqis. This initially
jocular man grew serious as he explained, "There are many who are still
coming and they cannot work. They live hand to mouth," he said. going
on to tell me how the new arrivals are fleeing with little and in
desperate need of help.

In Jordan, Iraqi refugees cannot legally work. I'm not comfortable
identifying by name refugees when it could prevent employment. Were
this a brief story, it would be one thing. But the Iraqi refugees who
fled to Jordan during the ethnic cleansing that began in 2006 have
largely not returned. That's also true in Syria where you're far more
likely to find Iraqi Kurds returning than Iraqi Sunni or Shia.

They fled violence in their home country and are now hopeful of finding a
better future in Germany. Some 100 Iraqi refugees have arrived in
Hannover as part of a plan to house 900 Iraqi refugees in the country.

Maria tightly clutches her teddy bear. The little girl bravely smiles at
the cameras and new faces before her. For her new life in Germany, she
wants only one thing. Time to play.
"It's about the security and future for my children," says Maria's
father when asked by journalists about his hopes for his family in
Germany. In Iraq, the Al-Samari family didn't see any future anymore.
"It's because we are Christians and are persecuted," he explains. So he,
his wife and two children fled. First to Turkey, then to Germany.
The situation is similar for many of the other refugees who on Tuesday
(16.07.2013) arrived at the Hannover airport. Ninety-percent of them are
Christians. And almost half of them, children.

Timothy Coon is a full-time instructor at the State Police Academy. He
also splits his time serving in the U.S Army Reserve as a Lieutenant
Colonel. In 2006, he was deployed to Baquba Iraq and was away from his
family for a full year.

"I literally had a phone call from my daughter's fifth grade science
teacher concerning the science project while there was machine gunfire
going off over our heads. The Sunnis and Shias from either side of the
village were shooting at each other and we were in the middle."

Coon was assigned to a Military Transition Team whose mission was to
train an Iraqi Army Unit. He had help from Iraqis like Falah Abdullatif.
Abdullatif had been a Colonel in the Iraqi Air Force but after the war
started, he had few options to support his family so he became a
translator for the U.S Army. Coon and Abdullatif quickly became friends
because they had a lot in common. They were the same age, both had
lengthy careers in the military and their kids were often on their
minds.

Coon: “From then on out, spent a lot of evenings sitting with him in
his room talking about the day and everything in it." Lucy: So he
quickly became a battle buddy? Coon:"Sure did he became a battle buddy
to everybody on the team.”

For the record, Hannah Allam has not reported on this topic and has not
Tweeted on it. She claims it's very important to her. But not
important enough for her to write about or even compose a simple Tweet
on.

QUESTION: Okay. And also, the Latin American media is
reporting out about a call that Secretary Kerry had with the Foreign
Minister in Venezuela.

MS. HARF: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: And they are saying that he was sort of – I think
they were using the word "threatened," threatened him with – okay, if
they don’t give up Snowden, well, we’ll do this. So what’s your
reaction to that?

MS. HARF: Well, while we don’t
normally comment on private diplomatic communications, in this case,
this characterization of their conversation is completely false. The
Secretary made no reference in his conversation with the Foreign
Minister as to what our response would be if Venezuela were to assist
Mr. Snowden or receive him. Instead, Secretary Kerry conveyed to the
Foreign Minister that Mr. Snowden is accused of serious criminal
offenses and should be returned to the United States to face those
charges if he were to come into Venezuelan jurisdiction. Should
Venezuela assist Mr. Snowden or receive him, we will consider what the
appropriate response should be at that time.

QUESTION: The media reports were pretty detailed, though. I
mean, it – maybe it wasn’t characterized as a threat, so to speak, but I
mean, they were saying things like, well, maybe we can curtail some
sales of gasoline to Venezuela or maybe we can expand the list of narco
traffickers from the Treasury Department, or --

MS. HARF: Again --

QUESTION: -- I mean, it’s pretty specific.

MS. HARF: -- I’ve seen those reports. Again, the Secretary
made no reference in his conversation as to what our response would be
if Venezuela were to assist Mr. Snowden, I’m categorical in saying.

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. HARF: Yes.

QUESTION: Can you clarify, the Kremlin today said it’s
unaware of any plans for Snowden to seek Russian citizenship. Have you
got – and then the Interfax agency actually said that Snowden’s request
for Russian citizen will be processed, from a Kremlin spokesman. Do we
know what the status is? Has the U.S. followed up? Has the Ambassador
spoken to them?

MS. HARF: I don’t have any update for
you on Mr. Snowden’s status on those reports other than to say that we
continue to have diplomatic conversations about our position on Mr.
Snowden. That hasn’t changed. But I don’t have any update on those
reports for you.

If, like many, you're confused what the difference isbetween NPR and the US State Dept is, the second hour of today's The Diane Rehm Show didn't help you. Her panelists were David Ignatius (Washington Post), Indira Lakshmanan (Bloomberg News) and Bruce Auster (NPR). Excerpt.

Diane Rhem: Indira, let's start with Russia, where Edward Snowden has asked for temporary asylum this week. What's the latest?

Indira Laskhmanan: Well, the latest is that Vladimir Putin has been
put in the embarrassing situation, one I guess he's been in before but
of having to make two contradictory statements to the press. On the one
hand saying we are not going to allow the Snowden affair to interfere
with U.S. - Russian relations and bilateral relations are far more
important than any case of the spy agencies. And at the same time
saying, we're not going to be pushed around by the United States. And
we're not going to bow to the U.S. because we have our sovereignty. It's
an obvious reference to how the U.S. forced and pressured other
countries to force down, Evo Morales, the Bolivian president's plane
when he was flying across Europe to search it in case Edward Snowden was
on board since Bolivia's offered Snowden asylum.
So I think where we are right now the White House is trying to send out a
signal that it is ready and very prepared to cancel the Obama Summit
with Vladimir Putin planned for next month or planned for September if
this situation is not resolved before then.

Diane Rehm: And, David, what has President Putin said about Mr. Snowden?

David Ignatius:
Well, he made a fascinating set of comments. At one point he said,
"We're prepared to let Mr. Snowden stay here so long as he doesn't harm
the interests of the United States." And then said, "That sounds funny
coming from me," Putin being an ex-KGB officer himself.
You have the feeling, at least I have the feeling that now that Snowden
is in Moscow the Russians almost certainly have found a way to get
access to the very secret material that he has. I mean, surely Mr.
Snowden's had to go to the bathroom for the last two weeks.
That they've got the stuff and they'll make whatever use they want to
and I suppose in their interests it's probably better to keep it less
decimated now rather than more.

Diane Rehm: Bruce?

Bruce Auster:
Yes, that's a really interesting point. Earlier in the week Glen
Greenwald who's the journalist who's reported a number of these stories
and has been in contact with Edward Snowden, said that Snowden has
thousands of documents, not just the ones that we've all seen publically
that have been released.
But that he has thousands of others that are essentially the
architecture of how the NSA programs work. So the question then becomes,
does Snowden have control over the documents in his possessions? The
Russians could conceivably just coerce him into handing them over. But
there have been reports that there are four laptops that he has in his
possession. So over three weeks in this airport it's entirely plausible
that A, the Russians get physical access to that computer which would
then get them say, his hard drive. Then what they have to do is break
the encryption and cyber experts, people who understand computers will
argue that it is entirely possible even if the encryption is very good,
that those documents could be read.
And so from the perspective of U.S. intelligence services you have to
assume that those thousands of documents are in the possession of the
Russian security services.

Diane Rehm:
How big a threat are those documents to not only the National Security
of the United States but our relations with every other country in the
world?

Bruce Auster:
Yes, there's two issues there. One is we don't know what they are but to
the extent the description of them is providing the blueprints for how
the NSA actually goes about implementing these programs. That would be,
you can imagine, enormously valuable to another security service.
The other question is the sort of geo-political impact of all of these
revelations. Putting aside whether the Russians get what's left on his
laptop, Even the revelations that we've seen so far have so complicated
relationships. There were leaks about cyber attacks against China that
were leaked on the eve of a president's summit with the Chinese
president.
We see the European nations basically discovering they've been spied
upon. So geo-politically there are enormous impacts or at least
complications from these revelations.

Diane Rehm:
David?

David Ignatius:
Well, in this NSA bag of tricks that Snowden brought with him are
secrets that are among the most precious the United States has. The
question always is when the magician been revealed and how he does his
tricks can he still do them and do you want him to do them?
And we are now in a debate in this country over the surveillance and
civil liberties. There's no question to me as somebody looking at
intelligence that the ability to listen all over the world often in
cooperation most security services but not always, is an immensely
valuable foreign policy tool for the United States. Much more important
than anything the CIA does.

Diane Rehm:
So the question becomes, has not only Russia but indeed perhaps even China already stolen Snowden's files, Indira?

No, what the question becomes is how do stupid people get on the air?

What world are these idiots living in? Yes, it's been White House and
State Dept spin as the week wound down that 'Dear Heavens the foreigners
could learn all of our secrets!!!!!" (Despite the fact that foreign
governments generally already know the secrets.) And if Diane can't
advance administration spin, she apparently has no reason to go on air
these days.

But the reality is that Ed Snowden is tech savy -- and not a pundit on The Diane Rehm Show.

On his hard drive?

I'm surprised Diane didn't ponder the safety of the 'floppy discs.' It
would have made as much sense. Any information Ed has is either on a
hidden flash drive or, more likely, has been uploaded to a secure cloud
(and I can guess which cloud immediately).

The segment goes on and on and we could quote it but I'm getting sick of
the pompous voices. So I'll instead just note that at no point are the
revelations addressed and at no point is anyone voicing concern for
Ed. NPR remains the previously unknown north wing of the White House.
What a sad day for journalism.

“America no longer has a functioning democracy,” said former
President Jimmy Carter. The former President was criticizing the NSA
program exposed by Edward Snowden. He made his remarks discussing the
intelligence service, and condemning its actions. Edward Snowden’s revelations are proving useful, said Carter, because “they inform the public.” Mr. Carter’s remarks were made in Atlanta, while speaking before the
‘Atlantic Bridge,’ a non-profit organization to enhance relations
between the United States and Germany.

Were you doing a public affairs program on Friday and feeling the need
to note Ed Snowden, surely part of the story would be that a former US
president was noting that Ed's revelations were informing the public. Der Spiegel first reported on the remarks:

Narayn Lakshman (The Hindu) sounds
a cautionary note, reminding that Der Spiegel is the source everyone is
working from at this point and no other outlet has offered reporting
from Atlanta on the remarks. Also offering support to Ed? The head of the ACLU. Chad Abraham (Aspen Daily News) reports the ACLU's Anthony Romero remarked on Snowden at the Aspen Security Forum:“I’ve been watching this whole debate about Edward Snowden,” Romero
said. “I think he did this country a service ... by [jump-starting] a
debate that was anemic, that was left to government officials where
people did not understand fully what was happening.”There is now a vigorous public debate, six lawsuits about the NSA
program have been filed, and Congress is holding hearings about the
issue, he said.

Diane and her panel were interested in that either. How very telling.
Who would have thought, prior to Barack becoming president, that Dianne,
of all people, would turn her back on whistle-blowing? Decisions like
that do have consequences and maybe we're seeing them right now?

Congressional Quarterly's John M. Donnelly Tweeted the latest on New York Times' reporter James Risen:

What's going on? James Risen has been ordered by the government (which
now includes the Fourth US Circuit of Appeals) to answer as to whether
or not the CIA's Jeffrey Sterling was his source for reports Risen
filed? Jeffrey Sterling is among the many whistle-blowers Barack Obama
has attempted to destroy and imprison. Sterling was charged in 2010 by
Barack and cronies with violating the Espionage Act of 1917.

It's amazing how paranoid Barack Obama is -- is there any reason for
these crackdowns other than paranoia. That's what's led to Bradley
Manning's three year imprisonment although he still has never been found
guilty of anything.

Monday April 5,
2010, WikiLeaks released
military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were
killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and
Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7,
2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley
Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel
(Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had
been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The
first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring
classified information to his personal computer between November and May and
adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second
comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of
classified information." In March, 2011, David S. Cloud
(Los Angeles Times) reported
that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges including one
that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could result in the death penalty
if convicted. The Article 32 hearing took place in December. At the start of
this year, there was an Article 32 hearing and, February 3rd, it was announced
that the government would be moving forward with a court-martial. Bradley has
yet to enter a plea. The court-martial was supposed to begin before the November 2012 election but it was
postponed until after the election so that Barack wouldn't have to run on a
record of his actual actions. Independent.ie adds, "A court martial is set to be held in June at Ford Meade in Maryland,
with supporters treating him as a hero, but opponents describing him as a
traitor." February 28th, Bradley admitted he leaked to WikiLeaks. And why.

Bradley Manning: In attempting to conduct counter-terrorism or CT and
counter-insurgency COIN operations we became obsessed with capturing and
killing human targets on lists and not being suspicious of and avoiding
cooperation with our Host Nation partners, and ignoring the second and
third order effects of accomplishing short-term goals and missions. I
believe that if the general public, especially the American public, had
access to the information contained within the CIDNE-I and CIDNE-A
tables this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military
and our foreign policy in general as [missed word] as it related to Iraq
and Afghanistan.
I also believed the detailed analysis of the data over a long period of
time by different sectors of society might cause society to reevaluate
the need or even the desire to even to engage in counterterrorism and
counterinsurgency operations that ignore the complex dynamics of the
people living in the effected environment everyday.

Had the US government shown the same concern, Bradley wouldn't have had
to step up. Instead, they gladly supported Nouri al-Maliki in torture
and that's what Brad's exposures really prove. This took place under
Barack Obama's administration. When the dots are connected, it's
obvious what the White House has so feared for so long. Brad's in the midst of his court-martial.

Dorian Merina (Free Speech Radio News) reported
yesterday, "Today the military judge in the court martial of Army
Private Bradley
Manning denied a request from his defense to dismiss some of the most
serious charges, including the “aiding the enemy” charge that could
carry a sentence of life in prison. Manning faces 22 charges in
connection with leaking military documents to the anti-secrecy group,
Wikileaks. Manning has said that he leaked the documents in order to
'spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign
policy in general.' The severity of the charge of aiding the enemy could
have implications for future government whistleblowers or those
seeking to bring information to the public." Thomas L. Knapp (CounterPunch) weighs in today:

I’m shocked — shocked! — that Colonel Denise Lind,
the military judge who ruled in February that Bradley Manning could be
tried on various charges even after being held prior to arraignment for
more than five times the absolute longest time specified in the US
Armed Forces’ “speedy trial” rules, has now also ruled that Manning can
be convicted of aiding an enemy that does not exist.
Yes, you read that right: There’s only an “enemy” to aid, in any
legal sense, if the United States is at war, a state created by a
congressional declaration. There’s been no such declaration since World
War II.
Lind had only one legal duty as judge in this case: To dismiss all
charges due to the government’s failure to meet the “speedy trial”
deadline. If the United States was, as John Adams put it, “a government
of laws, not of men,” that’s exactly what she would have done.

Turning to England where there's news of an inquiry into Iraq. Wednesday, the UK's Iraq Inquiry posted the following:
The Inquiry has today published an update on its progress that Sir John Chilcot sent to the Prime Minister on Monday 15 July.
As the letter explains, the Inquiry has made significant progress with
writing its report. It has begun a dialogue with the Cabinet Secretary,
Sir Jeremy Heywood, about material the Inquiry wishes to include in its
report covering discussions in Cabinet and Cabinet Committees, Mr
Blair's notes to President Bush, and records of discussions between Mr
Blair and Mr Brown and Presidents Bush and Obama.
The Inquiry has concluded that it will be in a position to begin the
process of writing to individuals that may be criticised at the end of
the month, with letters containing the provisional criticisms to follow
at the end of October. That will be a confidential process.
The Inquiry's final report will be submitted to the Prime Minister as
soon as possible after that process is complete and any representations
received from individuals have been considered.
The Prime Minister replied to Sir John's letter on 17 July.

The Iraq Inquiry began held public hearings from November 24, 2009 to
February 2, 2011 as it attempted to explore how the UK ended up in the
Iraq War. John Chilcot is the Chair of the inquiry. A report was
expected some time ago. Of the Blair-Bush letters, The Week notes:The letters between Blair and President George W Bush were written in
2002 and are believed to show that Blair was offering to support
America if Bush decided to attack Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein long
before the Cabinet or the Commons gave their assent to the war. And long
before the sexed-up report on Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction and
phoney intelligence were found to give the invasion a legal fig-leaf.Chilcot is still battling to stop the correspondence being kept secret

Christopher Hope (Telegraph of London) adds, "Sir John also wishes to highlight previously unknown correspondence between Mr
Blair and Gordon Brown and other communications with US presidents. The
Prime Minister said Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, was aiding
the inquiry on releasing this information."